


Firefighter Dreams Like Smoke In The Sky

by Piehead



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Hospitals, Kent's dad who is small and worried, Mexican!Swoops, Minor Injuries, Natural Disasters, Non-hockey related injuries, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 12:04:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13481118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piehead/pseuds/Piehead
Summary: Jack wakes up to thirty missed calls and eighty-two text messages. There's been a fire in Vegas.





	Firefighter Dreams Like Smoke In The Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the Parse Posi Posse Discord for helping me get back into the groove of writing Parse and his Dad (an OC of mine). So! Y'all get to meet Pierce Parson, Kent's trans dad who worries terribly for his son.

Jack wakes up to thirty missed calls and eighty-two text messages. There’s only one name flashing at the top of his screen and it’s one of the only people from his time in the Q he bothers to keep in contact with. He’s up so fast when he sees all of the worried text messages (“Please call me” “Jack I need you to call me” “Honey please call when you get this” “Call me soon please” “Jack please answer” and seventy-seven more just like them) and he calls Pierce Parson to find out what’s wrong.

The phone rings two and a half times before it’s picked up and Jack knows by the watery “Hello?” that Kent’s dad has been crying, and it hurts a bit to know that it’s been happening for three hours and he doesn’t know why.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asks immediately.

“Jack, I’m so glad to hear from you,” Mr. Parson says (Pierce, his mind always supplies, because Mr. Parson is too formal and he had always wanted to be the cool parent). “Is Kenny with you?”

Of course this was about Kent, because Jack has been keeping tabs and sending the updates Kent himself won’t, because Kent’s dad worries and Jack knows he deserves to know what’s happening with his son (sons, even though Jack doesn’t always remember, Pierce Parson thought of him as his own).

“No, he’s not. He’s in Vegas…?” Jack’s voice trailed off in something more of a question. He felt more alarmed when a strangled noise left Pierce’s throat.

“That’s what I was afraid of.”

“Pierce, what’s—”

“There was a fire. At that big hotel Kent’s apartment is in. There was a fire and Kenny’s not—Jack he isn’t—” A choked sob cuts Pierce out, and then Jack is looking for the landline, to make phone calls of his own. The first is Kent; he has to confirm that it’s not just the blonde sleeping in or his phone cut off. But Jack tries Kent’s cell, his landline, even the hotel lobby, and there’s no answer. None.

Then Jack calls Jeff Troy. He had known Troy for approximately six months now and Jack kept up with Troy to keep up with Kent. It was the easiest way to make sure Kent was taking his meds, keeping up with his therapist, staying out of self-destructive habits.

Jack keeps Pierce on the line the entire time, trying to soothe him with reassurances and promises Jack doesn’t think he can keep, not with the way his heart drops further into his stomach with every unanswered ring. Troy was a last resort and he breathes a sigh of near relief when Troy answers the phone.

Then, it catches in his throat at the pinched tone of voice Troy’s got.

“Troy.”

“What’s happening?” Jack asks, getting straight to the point. It’s obvious by the rough grunt alone that Troy has been up for probably several hours.

“There was a fire in Parser’s building. The firefighters have been trying to get it under control for three hours with fucking _nothing_ the damn—” Troy goes into a line of angry Spanish that Jack is sure is full of curses. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s got Pierce on mute, which is probably a good thing for right now, after telling him to breathe.

“Nothing? At all,” it’s said like a statement but it’s more of a question and both of them know it.

“They’ve got it tamed enough for some of the fire fighters to go in, but Parser’s loft is nearly at the fucking top. That’s almost _thirty fucking floors_ , Zimmermann.”

Jack knew how high it was. He had been in that apartment enough. He was—fuck he was so worried. He had never been this worried in his life.

“I’m coming to Vegas,” Jack suddenly decides. He needs to be there; he needs to get _Pierce_ there because his son could be dead for all he knew and it would hurt Pierce something terrible if he wasn’t at least there.

“Shit, man, you can’t just come here—”

“Watch me,” Jack responds, and then he hangs up and picks up his cellphone to talk to Pierce again.

“...Baba?” the soft, childish, word is said and he hears Pierce sniff into the receiver. “I’m booking you a flight to Vegas. I’ll meet you there.”

He brooks no arguments. It’s an agonizing nine hours but he pays for the cheap plane wifi to keep track of what’s happening. It’s around noon that the fires are completely out and firefighters have gone in to check on the civilians and get as many out of the building as possible. He arrives at the airport two hours after Pierce has gotten there. Pierce is waiting at the gate for him and pulls him into a hug immediately, even though Jack has to bend down a bit to hug the small man. He wished they were meeting again under better circumstances.

“You look just like Bobby,” Pierce smiles, even though his eyes are red and puffy because he’s been crying. He didn’t know where to go before Jack arrived; he didn’t know what he would expect if he’d arrived at the hotel to try to look for Kent.

“Almost ten years does that,” Jack tries to smile back, but it doesn’t reach his eyes and he knows it doesn’t. Pierce pats his cheek a bit and then turns, a small bag he had packed carefully slung over his shoulders.

“Let’s get going,” Jack says. Pierce simply nods, words evading him when his eyes drift to a TV, where an anchorwoman is talking about the blaze that cost too many lives. Jack resolutely does _not_ look, because the last thing he wants to think about is Kent, lifeless after a fire, nearly unrecognizable—

He turns Pierce away from the TV and blocks his view with his body. Jack doesn’t want Pierce’s mind spiraling down that hole if he can help it.

“One of Kent’s teammates is gonna meet us.” Because Jack called Troy back when he got to the airport in Boston and admitted that they would need help navigating the city to the hotel or the hospital, whichever one would get them to Kent. He got some insult at the first answering but Troy agreed, wanting to make sure Jack and Kent’s dad managed to get around safely.

True to his word, Jack and Pierce left the airport and saw a sign that read “ZIMMERMANN” held up high over the heads of many people. Jack went immediately up to Troy.

“Troy, this is Pierce Parson, Kent’s father,” Jack introduces, “Pierce, Jeff Troy. They’re teammates.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Pierce says, managing to smile just a bit.

“Sorry this is what brings you to Vegas,” Troy apologizes, like he set the fire himself. Jack levels a look over Pierce’s head at Troy, one that’s caught immediately and Troy sighs. It’s obvious to Troy what it meant; _Don’t make things worse._

“My truck’s in the garage.”

Troy leads them out and to his truck. It’s obvious he was listening to the news when they get in but he changes the station quick enough to some pop song Jack doesn’t recognize. Still, he hears Pierce hum along to the words in the back seat as a way to calm himself so he doesn’t touch the radio, even as the lack of words around them is something of a pressure on its own.

“Everyone was evacuated from the building. All were taken to the Sunrise hospital, to make sure no one was seriously injured,” Troy says when he veers to the right a bit, to go towards the road with the large H sign next to it.

“That hospital is overrun with patients I bet,” Pierce mentions. Troy shakes his head.

“They took people in groups through the night and morning. By the time Parser would’ve been checked in the first eight or twelve batches of people should’ve been discharged, barring any extreme physical disabilities.”

The _or death_ was left unsaid but implied heavily enough that Jack felt a little sick. He didn’t want to think about all the people that were dead, he didn’t want to think about all the people that were never gonna be with members of their family again, he didn’t want to think about Pierce losing his child. Even with all they had been through, Jack would _never_ wish something so horrible on Kent.

Almost twelve hours with no word from Kent was taking its toll on Pierce. Jack could tell; he saw it in the rearview mirror that Pierce was likely working his way through the five stages of grief. Jack hoped to whatever deity there was that Pierce didn’t hit Acceptance anytime soon, because he didn’t think he could take seeing that kind of heartbreak.

The hospital was crowded with people from the hotel; Troy left them to find a place to park while Jack and Pierce went searching for Kent. They tried the front desk first, but were immediately directed to the ER where all the people that had been brought over from the hotel had been checked in and discharged periodically for the last fourteen hours. Pierce walked up to the desk and the nurses immediately recognized a parent looking for their child.

“Name?” the nurse asked, looking for all the world like she wanted to help Pierce.

“Parson, please,” Pierce practically begged. The nurse entered the name into her computer and did a bit of typing before she looked up at Pierce.

“Kent Parson?”

“Yes, my son.” The way it rolled off of Pierce’s tongue made Jack smile, just a bit. The nurse told them they needed to go up six floors to room 5-09. Pierce thanked her and both of them received visitors passes to go up. The elevator was crowded and Pierce stood close to Jack, who was glad that there seemed to be some hope at last.

They reached the sixth floor and started down the hallway, looking out for the marker that would indicate the rooms they were seeking. They found the tens block and Pierce all but ran down to room 5-09, where there seemed to be some commotion.

“Kent!” Pierce shouted, Jack right behind him.

“Baba?” Kent’s eyes lit up when he saw his parent, not entirely noticing Jack at first. The doctor in the room stopped Pierce before he could get close enough to hug his son.

“He’s got a few burns that need treatment—”

“I’m _fine_ ,” Kent cut in to say with a growl.

“—And he needs to be kept overnight because of a leg injury,” the doctor told them.

“Thank you for looking after him,” Jack said, and finally Kent’s attention was drawn to his former teammate and friend. He bristled just a bit, unsure of why Jack was in Vegas and even more concerned that Jack was in Vegas with his father. He looked between them until Pierce turned to the doctor, asking questions and trying to get him out of the room.

Jack stepped over to the bed and took a seat in the chair on the right side of it, leaving the left side open for Pierce.

“What are you doing here?” Kent asked, getting right to the point.

“Pierce—” Kent rose an eyebrow and Jack sighed. “ _Baba_ called me this morning and said there had been a fire.”

“There was. That doesn’t tell me why you’re here.”

Jack wondered if Kent was being an ass because he was in the hospital or if it was because Jack had shown up with his father. He could only imagine how bad Kent was gonna get when Troy showed up.

“He was worried about you. He was hoping you were with me,” Jack said. He brought a hand up to rub over his face. “He was worried. I was worried.”

Kent didn’t say anything, but Jack couldn’t see the surprised expression on his face. When Jack _did_ look up, though, Kent’s expression shut down again. He plastered on a smirk that Jack knew was fake, however.

“Aww, you were worried about me, Zimms?”

“For good reason!” Pierce appeared in the room again after finally getting the doctor to leave. He settled on Kent’s other side, his bag dropped on the floor. “I nearly had a _heart attack_ this morning. I was so worried about you.”

The last statement was said so softly Kent felt bad about not thinking to call when he got to the hospital. He tried to remember where his things were and found his mind coming around to Kit’s carrying case, which had been left (with Kit in it) with one of his neighbors that hadn’t been carted off to the hospital like he had. His phone and wallet were both in the case because they had been the only things he had grabbed aside from Kit and thought to bring with him.

“I’m sorry, Baba,” Kent said, looking for all the world like a scolded child.

“I’m not upset with you, Kenny.” Pierce leaned over to wrap his arms around Kent. Kent hugged his father, breathing slowly. He didn’t want to cry.

When he pulled back Pierce smiled. “And I should be thanking Jack! It was such a short notice thing, I’m glad there were even flights out here so early! If Mrs. Jackson next door hadn’t heard me trying to get my things together I might have missed my flight.”

“He flew you out here? At five in the morning?” Kent looked over at Jack. Jack gave him a small smile.

“We were worried.”

Kent couldn’t keep eye contact when Jack’s expression was so _open_. He was glad Troy chose that moment to appear in the room.

“Captain,” Troy’s expression was dark. Of all the people in Vegas that worried the most about Kent, Jeff Troy was at the top of the list. The last thing he ever wanted was for his Captain to be hurt and that meant he likely spoke to either the doctors or the nurses rushing around from room to room. Kent looked over at Pierce, whose smile never faltered.

“Mr. Troy drove us all the way here!”

No sympathy from that side. Kent looked to Jack, who looked at least a little sorry for Kent, since he was at least a little familiar with how Troy got when Kent was involved. Troy marched right up to the bed and glared his captain down.

“What’s this about some commotion with the doctor?”

**Author's Note:**

> Pierce Parson was created on a whim one day when I kept wondering about Kent's dad. I know a lot of folks see him as having just his mom (or having moms) and that's really neat! I love it! I just also love the idea that Kent has a dad! And sometimes more than one! And sometimes trans! Which led to me creating Pierce, who has been supportive of everything Kent does since day one. A1 since Day 1 B/  
> Anyway, I had stopped writing anything related to him because I felt like no one would read it. I find myself in quite a few places where it's hard to be Parse Posi so I just kind of fell off writing stuff for him. But now!! I am Back On Track with it and I have a lot of Kentfic planned out.  
> Pierce himself is a 5'2" transman who lives in New York City in the apartment Kent grew up in. He's divorced but think of his situation as like. Parent trap-esque.


End file.
